hey! mike hey!

title: hey! mike hey!

year: 2012 – 2013

location: new york city, new york

duration: six months

supported by: the canada council for the arts at iscp (international studio and curatorial program) brooklyn, new york.

hey! mike hey! is a multifaceted conversation with michael r. bloomberg, the 108th mayor of new york city. “mike” (his facebook page and twitter accounts use the shortened form of “mike” as opposed to michael) is a mayor approaching the end of his third term in office, the 10th richest person in the u.s.a. (net worth 27 billion), and, according to his own accounts, an “entrepreneur and philanthropist.”

“mike,” the mayor of new york city, is the primary recipient of this project. however, in addition to letters sent to city hall addressed to mike, other works were sent to third party recipients in a strategy aimed at bursting the private bubble of correspondence. as such, ink on paper texts were made into limited edition prints and mailed to mike, nyc council members and others. as well postcards were made from the ink on paper which were then mailed to mike, nyc council members, new york state senators, lawyers, artists, and others. the postcards were also posted in various “public” locations in manhatten and brooklyn. blog posts, facebook posts, twitter tweets and youtube were also used.

in my correspondence with mike i do not contest the love he holds for new york city, nor do i dismiss the progress and strides he has achieved, of which there are many.

however, i do question the relationship between mike and those who fall on the “other side” of the prosperity divide, i do question the sense of profound entitlement that condones one person to amass great wealth at the expense of others, and i do question the structures of a system whereby one person can be held up as a philanthropist without a basic acknowledgement of the deep lack of equality between all humans,

– cuz mike – no one gets rich alone.

HEY! MIKE publication available at iscp, brooklyn, until january 30, 2015.

The HEY! MIKE publication features a commissioned text by the lawyer Mara Verna coupled with images from the hey! mike project. Verna’s text chronicles how the housing policies of New York City, under Michael Bloomberg’s administration, failed the homeless and ultimately led to a 61 percent increase of the homeless population.

The journalistic essay juxtaposed with the hand crafted paintings highlight two strategies of transmitting information. The one employs informative journalism; it speaks from the objective viewpoint of the educated lawyer/journalist. The other references handcrafted art and requires effort and time to decipher; it speaks from the subjective voice of the solitary individual. Both methods of communication bear witness to a socially created hierarchy where some have, while others do not.

The newspaper format continues the mail art strategy employed by the artist throughout the hey! mike project and once again is a give-away destined to reach as many people as possible.

HEY! MIKE
Fall, 2013
4 page publication on newsprint
15 x 11 inches
Author: Mara Verna
Artist: karen elaine spencer
Editor, Design and Layout : Jack Locke
Produced by: karen elaine spencer
with the support of The Canada Council for the Arts